There is such a refreshing grace and innocence to Polina Edmunds, the 15-year-old American who will be in the Olympic ladies’ figure skating competition. There is also an impression of reserve and self-reflection, however, as though each movement on the ice is not merely the result of hours of practice and repetition but something found within, just then, something that is new and beautiful.

In interviews, she is very much like any girl her age, if a little more serious, but her face is shadowed by an emerging awareness that will be more apparent in the woman she becomes. It is the source of her enchantment with the music she dances to.

Her short and long programs are quite charming, the short program showing off her technical skill and sense of fun, while the long program is achingly romantic.

The excerpts from Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” are especially well chosen, with the poignant longing of “Solveig’s Song” leading into the growing exultation of “Morning.” Interestingly, their order is reversed from how they appear in the Grieg suite, where “Solveig’s Song” is last and “Morning” is first. This lends a wonderfully cathartic effect, as in the lines from the psalm: “Weeping for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

The choreography of the long program also provides a great opportunity for self-expression. Possibly that is why Edmunds’ performance at the U.S. Championships was so much stronger, even with a fall, than the one at the Junior Grand Prix Finals just a month earlier.

It is an aspect that makes her skate at the Olympics so intriguing, for as she is more and more able to reveal the music, she more and more reveals herself.

As to her winning a medal, this may turn on whether the judges can put aside political considerations and their preconceptions, and simply allow their minds to mediate between their hearts and what they experience.